World News Quick Take

Agencies

GUAM

Forgotten daughter perishes

A father is accused of forgetting his daughter in a vehicle for seven hours, resulting in her death. The Guam Attorney General’s office says Anthony Morcilla has been indicted in the death of his two-year-old daughter. Morcilla was arrested on Wednesday last week after allegedly forgetting to drop off the toddler at daycare and leaving her in the vehicle while he was at work. She was pronounced dead at the hospital. The Pacific Daily News reported on Friday a grand jury rejected a manslaughter charge and instead indicted him on charges of negligent homicide, leaving a child unattended in a motor vehicle and child abuse.

NETHERLANDS

ICC probes own staffer

The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague has opened a formal investigation into allegations by four people who say they were subjected to sexual abuse by a court staff member working in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The war crimes court said on Friday it is “profoundly concerned by these grave allegations” and had taken steps to protect the alleged victims. It said the investigation was aimed at “establishing the facts underlying the allegations and fairly determining any possible responsibilities.” It is not clear whether the allegations will lead to a prosecution, and if so, where it would take place. The court said it would turn the inquiry’s findings over to ICC “judges and relevant parties to the proceedings concerned” — presumably meaning legal authorities in the DRC. The Coalition for the ICC, an umbrella organization of civil society and human rights groups that support the court, said in a reaction that members had been “deeply shocked and concerned” to hear of the allegations.

UNITED STATES

Fan meets Seger after coma

The first words of a 79-year-old woman as she emerged from a five-year semi-coma in Auburn Hills, Michigan, were: “I want to go to a Bob Seger concert.” And now her wish has come true. The Flint Journal reports that Evie Branan cheered, threw her hands in the air and danced during Seger’s concert on Thursday night at The Palace of Auburn Hills. She also met Seger and his family, talked with crew and band members and received VIP treatment. After suffering a stroke that left Branan unable to speak, move or eat on her own, she became a resident of Willowbrook manor’s long-term care unit. She awoke from the semi-coma on May 7, 2011.

MALAWI

Madonna critics reprimanded

President Joyce Banda has “reprimanded” aides who issued a scathing attack on Madonna that fueled a very public spat with the pop star, a source at the presidency said on Friday. She “reprimanded officers in the State House press department for issuing the statement without consulting her,” an official in Banda’s office said on condition of anonymity. Banda’s State House on Wednesday issued a four-page statement suggesting Madonna demanded VIP treatment, engaged in emotional blackmail, exaggerated her charity work and was a worse guest than Chuck Norris or Bono. It was, the statement said, “strange and depressing” that the singer seemed to want “Malawi to be forever chained to the obligation of gratitude” for having adopted two Malawian children. Madonna reacted angrily to the statement, accusing the government of peddling lies about her charity work.